Musk's 2018 Tesla tweet trial to start

Photo by: Elon Musk - Twitter
Photo by: Elon Musk - Twitter

(San Francisco, CA) -- Elon Musk's trial over a 2018 tweet starts Tuesday in a federal courtroom in San Francisco.

Back in August of that year, the electric automaker CEO tweeted that he had put together a 72-billion-dollar deal for a company buyout. That buyout never happened and now Musk will have to explain himself under oath thanks to a class action lawsuit brought by investors.

The tweet led to a 40-million-dollar settlement with the SEC and to Musk stepping down as Tesla chairman.

Musk tried and failed to get the trial moved to Texas, claiming that all the furor over his recent purchase of San Francisco-based Twitter poisoned the jury pool there.